GMT Alarm Watch

This complication can be programmed to strike at an exact time. Useful as a wake-up alarm, it can also serve as a reminder of an engagement or a job to be done.

A 12-hour counter with two hands, positioned at 3 o'clock, displays the time programmed for the alarm. Pressing the push-piece at 8 o’clock activates the alarm by engaging a column wheel. An “On/Off” indicator at 1 o’clock shows at a glance whether the alarm is activated or not. The chime is produced by a hammer striking a gong.

Highly functional, Blancpain alarm watches unite two complications much appreciated by the 21st-century traveller: the mechanical alarm function and display of a second time zone, that is to say the GMT complication, together with the date, whose correction, forwards or backwards, is linked to the second time zone.

Blancpain’s GMT Alarm models show the reference time by means of a central hand on the 24-hour scale. The alarm time naturally refers to the second time zone, which is the one shown by the usual hours and minutes hands, and corresponds to the time in the country being visited.

Timepieces equipped with an alarm require two barrels, one storing the energy needed for the movement, the other that for the striking mechanism. The automatic winding system on Blancpain watches winds both the movement and the alarm power reserve simultaneouslyl.